Happy Valentine's Day!

For some reason, Henry got very into Valentine's Day early this year. His Car Movie valentines were addressed and signed two weeks ago and he's been busy cutting out construction paper hearts and taping them on walls all over the house.

The rest of us decided to get in on the fun too.

We surprised papa with a collage of all of us holding hearts.

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

Party down- Juner.

A dose of Junie cuteness for you.

Mama and papa have been busy getting the house cleaned up.

Even with these two crazy kids. But what's the occasion?

It's Super Bowl time! We had our 7th annual party and this year's refreshments came from Wisconsin and Pittsburgh. Mama saved up her Christmas Klement's sausage and even ordered in cheese curds for the party!

From Pittsburgh, we had potato and cheese pierogies. Unfortunately, frozen pierogies in South Carolina aren't as good as the real thing.

But here's the real deal. We heard this was the thing- Primanti Brothers sandwiches. Italian bread, ham, provolone cheese, tomatoes, vinegar cole slaw, and french fries. They put french fries on everything in Pittsburgh.

Papa also got his yearly indulgence- Velveeta cheese (product)and Ro-tel. Also representing Wisconsin, we had brats, scotcheroos, Leinenkugel beer and mama even made a homemade kringle.

These guys were ready for the party to start!

Georgie remains the only one with Packer gear in the house. (It helps that they have the same initial.) We sure are glad we back the good team!

While the grown-ups watched the game, we camped out in the office watching Toy Story 3.

Alexa stayed out to play with Georgie. She has a lucrative career as a babysitter ahead of her.

Bring on the rice cereal- Georgie.

The other day, I was playing a video game with Henry and thought "It's time for something new."

Mama had something in mind, too. She's getting tired of me not sleeping and was hoping for a solution. First try- cereal!

I don't know about this stuff...

Let me try it again.

Henry even gave it a try.

June was not quite as interested. Actually, even time she sees the rice cereal, and especially the mess I make of it, she starts gagging and whispering "Yuck. Gross."

I can see her point. Junie is a true blue Parsons and no Parsons I know likes to touch food or see others making a mess of food. Henry did help out by delivering the "form-lia."

June does like her markers though. She managed to color me orange before mama noticed. Lucky for me, Junie only likes to color very small dots.

Here's a good snapshot of normal life at our house. It's pretty crazy around here. Mama tried to see if I could sit up for a while, but I don't think I'm quite ready.

Sunday at the Zoo- Henry.

As if last Saturday wan't enough, Sunday was even nicer. Sunny and 72 degrees. How did we get so lucky?

We decided to spend the afternoon in Greenville visiting the zoo.

One of the Colobus monkeys had a baby that may have been the cutest thing we've ever seen. It's that fuzzy white thing. We couldn't get a picture of it because by the time we got it out, it was nursing. Mama tried to explain to me about how all mammals nurse their babies- including humans. But I wasn't that interested.

John, Christopher and Miss Juliet met us at the zoo and we had a loud crazy time.

Of course, I took over pushing Christopher's stroller and didn't have time for trivial things like looking at animals.

Junie seemed to like it though.

We spent a good deal of time at the playgrounds.

John and I climbed on a bear and promptly fell asleep.

Just kidding!

Then we roared like a bear. Notice John's green mouth. Mama was feeling extra generous and brought us Fun Dips for after our picnic lunch.

After we left the zoo, we couldn't bear going home, so we headed downtown to Falls Park. It was packed and for a few hours we dreamed about what it would be like to live in a city again. Of course, mama and papa's dreams oddly enough didn't involve their three charming children, but instead featured lots of dining out and going to shows. Dream again, old folks.

Sunny Saturday- Henry.

I drew this- except for the squiggly lines. June did that. It's a football stadium. And all the lines are the bleachers. Now that's attention to detail.

Saturday was just wonderful. It was 68 degrees and sunny. While papa cleaned out the garage and Georgie took a nap, mama took us on a walk around the neighborhood to pick up trash. We were pleased to find that there isn't much trash to pick up in the neighborhood, so we headed out to the main road. We found LOTS of trash out there. Based on the trash we found, it seems like everyone in Clemson is drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and eating ice cream from McDonalds.

Junie rode in the stroller and I rode my new tricycle. When you pull up on a lever it spins out.

With my ripped up jeans and flannel shirt, I look pretty tough.

This is what happened when mama asked me to look mean. Striking fear into the hearts of many.

It's worth noting that upon our return from our bike ride, I declared it to be "just too hot to ride bikes." Mark it down- January 29th and the Turners are already complaining about the heat.

We forgot to tell you- June.

We slacked off on blogging so much that we forgot all of the things that have been happening. First and foremost, I am now officially a big girl in that I've given up my nuk.

I know. I'm not so happy about it either. And it was more like it was taken away rather than me giving it up. Since Christmas, I'd started chewing on my nuks (I had two left). Mama warned me that if I kept chewing on them, they'd get holes and we'd have to throw them away. Mama said this thinking it might happen months down the road. (I think they dreaded me giving up my nuk more than I did.) The next day, mama was changing the sheets on the bed and noticed that I had chewed holes in not one, but both of my nuks. She actually considered going out to buy new ones.

But mama's cheapness reigns supreme over the happiness of her children, so we had a long talk about the holes in my nuks. I refused to throw them away, so mama compromised and cut off tips so all I have left is the shield. Now they fit nicely over the faces of my stuffed animals.

It's been good and bad giving up my nuk. If you'll recall, Henry was three and a half when he gave his up, and that started three weeks of non-stop crying for two hours every night at bedtime. Exhausting. I didn't cry too much. I still ask if mama is going to fix my nukies. She said no.

The hard part about it all is that I've always had a hard time getting to sleep anyway. It takes me a LONG time to settle down. With my nuk, we were lucky if I was asleep before 10pm. (We go to bed at 8.) Now without it, I'm up until almost 11 every night and one night even made it up until 1am. Since the baby is in the room with us now, mama regularly takes away my flashlight and books, and has even taken my beloved blankies and rabbit. But even sitting in a pitch-black room doesn't help me fall asleep.

We thought maybe I'm napping too long in the afternoon (I'm still taking 2-3 hour naps). But on Sunday, I didn't get a nap at all and was still up until 11pm. So mama nixed stopping naps. If I'm not going to sleep at night, I'm still going to get what I can in the afternoon. Plus I don't think she's willing to give up her afternoon break.

Does anyone have any suggestions for getting me to sleep? Mama says she's about two nights away from raiding the medicine (or liquor) cabinet so this family can get a decent night sleep. Funny though, she didn't say who she was raiding them for...

This might seem mean for all of you digging out from the blizzard... June.

... but the weather has been lovely down here. I know we still have to make it through the rainy, gray, dreary late winter (mama said she'd take snow over rain any day), but we couldn't help but lap up all of the sunshine and warmth while it was here.

The first item of business was eating lunch outside. Now that we have our patio set, it's much easier than dragging out the card table and folding chairs. It is a little lonely though, since Henry eats lunch at school this year. It's killing him to miss outside lunches. While mama made my lunch, I played with Georgie.

She was very happy to spend sometime outside and even managed to kick off her shoes and dig her toes in the dirt while mama worked in the garden.

We were happy to see that some things survived the harsh and long winter. I don't know if they produce year after year, but our little strawberry plant is going strong-ish.

The onions are there, though Aunt Jenni said they probably won't get big until June.

And we were surprised to see that the sage and cilantro were holding up. Since cilantro is the first to go in the heat, we figured it wouldn't last long this winter, but it has proven otherwise. We can't wait for more warm weather so we can clean up the gardens and start planting again.